International drag icons Violet Chachki and Gottmik bring The Knockout Tour to The Joy Theater on November 28—a boxing-themed performance blending burlesque, fashion, live music, and queer performance art. Here’s what to expect from the duo’s first co-headline tour. Get tickets here.
International drag heavyweights Violet Chachki and Gottmik will bring their first-ever co-headline theater tour, The Knockout Tour, to The Joy Theater on Friday, November 28. The production reframes drag through the visual language of a stylized boxing match, merging concert-scale staging with the camp, glamour, and genre experimentation both artists are known for. Instead of a standard drag revue, the show acts as a collaborative performance piece—90 minutes of aerial work, burlesque choreography, live vocals, sculptural fashion, and audience participation woven into a loose narrative about competition and queer community.
Chachki, who rose to global prominence after winning RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7, has spent the past few years deepening her interdisciplinary practice—moving fluidly between burlesque, fetish aesthetics, and high-concept fashion collaborations with designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Moschino. Her recent residency at Paris’ historic Crazy Horse showcased her growing interest in cabaret traditions and physical theater, elements that carry directly into this tour.
Gottmik, meanwhile, has carved out a distinct lane as one of the most visible transmasculine performers working in drag today. Following his breakout run on Drag Race Season 13, he’s leveraged that spotlight into a multi-hyphenate career across makeup artistry, fashion, activism, and music. His contributions to the tour lean into a rock-inflected drag sensibility—sharp, stylized, and deliberately confrontational, echoing his collaborations with artists like Lil Nas X and designers like Versace. Both performers are also preparing to release their debut solo albums, portions of which will be performed live throughout the show.
The Knockout Tour live in New Orleans
Across its 48-city run in the U.S. and Canada, The Knockout Tour aims to reimagine drag performance as a hybrid of athletic training montage, pop-concert theatrics, and queer mythology. Promotional materials show the artists in stylized boxing imagery—sweat, glitter, and bruised glamour—hinting at a production interested as much in physicality as in fantasy. Each city will also feature local LGBTQIA+ supporting acts, underscoring the show’s emphasis on community and queer lineage.
For New Orleans, the Joy Theater stop offers a rare chance to see two of drag’s most influential modern figures experiment with scale, storytelling, and genre on the same stage. It’s less about spectacle for spectacle’s sake and more about exploring the evolving boundaries of drag as an art form — and what happens when two artists at the height of their powers decide to meet in the ring.
International drag icons Violet Chachki and Gottmik bring The Knockout Tour to The Joy Theater on November 28—a boxing-themed performance blending burlesque, fashion, live music, and queer performance art. Here’s what to expect from the duo’s first co-headline tour. Get tickets here.
International drag heavyweights Violet Chachki and Gottmik will bring their first-ever co-headline theater tour, The Knockout Tour, to The Joy Theater on Friday, November 28. The production reframes drag through the visual language of a stylized boxing match, merging concert-scale staging with the camp, glamour, and genre experimentation both artists are known for. Instead of a standard drag revue, the show acts as a collaborative performance piece—90 minutes of aerial work, burlesque choreography, live vocals, sculptural fashion, and audience participation woven into a loose narrative about competition and queer community.
Chachki, who rose to global prominence after winning RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7, has spent the past few years deepening her interdisciplinary practice—moving fluidly between burlesque, fetish aesthetics, and high-concept fashion collaborations with designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Moschino. Her recent residency at Paris’ historic Crazy Horse showcased her growing interest in cabaret traditions and physical theater, elements that carry directly into this tour.
Gottmik, meanwhile, has carved out a distinct lane as one of the most visible transmasculine performers working in drag today. Following his breakout run on Drag Race Season 13, he’s leveraged that spotlight into a multi-hyphenate career across makeup artistry, fashion, activism, and music. His contributions to the tour lean into a rock-inflected drag sensibility—sharp, stylized, and deliberately confrontational, echoing his collaborations with artists like Lil Nas X and designers like Versace. Both performers are also preparing to release their debut solo albums, portions of which will be performed live throughout the show.
Get tickets here
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